In 20-25 knots in the winter in the Channel you can almost
guarantee everyone’s got lifejackets and harnesses on, but
put the same boat in shorts and T-shirts weather, you
might have a slightly different approach to it.”
For this edition Spinlock worked closely with sailors to
develop a version of their LifeVest that was designed to be
worn for extended periods, as well as a special ‘bum bag’
which carries a second MOB 1, PLB1 and strobe light.
However, lifejackets and harnesses are not compulsory
during daylight and moderate conditions, with crews
applying their own judgement on when to wear them.
Are more stringent rules needed to enforce the wearing
of lifejackets, harnesses and AIS beacons? The sailors I
spoke to felt there would be huge resistance to this.
Gough believes his incident may lead to some changes
in approach. “I think the whole Volvo fleet has taken a step
back and thought, OK, maybe we need to lower the wind
limit a little bit of when we start wearing the AIS and PLBs.”
A few days into Leg 6, photos came back of the Volvo
crews bashing upwind in the South China Sea in 2-3 metre
seas and 20-25 knot winds. Some visibly wearing
lifejackets and harnesses, some not.
Vestas collision
On 20 January, Vestas 11th Hour Racing was approaching
the finish of Leg 4 in Hong Kong in second place when it
collided with a fishing vessel about 30 miles south-east of
the island. The boat sank, with nine of its ten crew rescued
by a passing commercial boat. The tenth was recovered on
board Vestas and airlifted to a Hong Kong hospital but was
Right: Alex Gough was
swept overboard from the
outrigger on Scallywag
mid-Pacific but recovered
unscathed in seven minuteslater confirmed dead. More than a month after the
incident the Vestas 11th Hour team was unable to confirm
what happened due to an ongoing investigation. The only
official comment we elicited was from the Hong Kong
Marine Department, which responded: “The accident
happened outside Hong Kong waters and the involved
fishing vessel was not licensed in Hong Kong. It is not
under our jurisdiction.”
We had been told that the Hong Kong authorities were
involved in the investigation; it is hard to ascertain facts.
One thing that is clear from the yacht’s race tracker is
that it was travelling at 20 knots of boat speed in 23 knots
of wind, in the dark (at 0123 local time). We understand
they were racing under fractional spinnaker.
A Volvo 65 sailing at 20 knots is covering more than one
boat length every two seconds. Displacing around 14
tonnes (loaded weight), a yacht hitting a stationary object
at that speed has the same kinetic energy as a packed
transit van at 50mph crashing into a parked vehicle.
At these speeds a stationary 12-20m vessel displaying a
masthead light visible for three miles (in accordance
with ColReg) would be seen for nine minutes from ›